Jan. 24, 2007

NEW ORLEANS - Tulane University announced on January 27, 2007 that the Board of Tulane University recently voted to return Green Wave athletics to full Division I-A status by the academic year 2010-11 when Tulane will field teams in 16 intercollegiate sports.

Tulane has been participating in intercollegiate athletics at the Division I-A level with a reduced number of programs (eight) since Hurricane Katrina closed the campus for the fall 2005 semester.

"The Board of Tulane recently approved a plan for athletics emanating from the Renewal Plan adopted in December 2005, which will bring Tulane's athletics programs into full compliance with the NCAA's Division I-A membership criteria by fiscal year 2011," Tulane President Scott Cowen said.

"The plan is fiscally responsible and supportive of our aspiration to continue as a model Division I-A program. Tulane is very proud of its student-athletes and believes the board-approved plan is in the best long-term interests of the university and the broader community," Cowen said.

Eight additional teams -- women's tennis, women's golf, men's outdoor track, men's cross country, men's tennis, women's swimming and diving, women's bowling and women's soccer -- will be phased in over a three-year period, beginning in the fall of 2008.

"Right after Katrina our student-athletes proudly carried the Tulane name across the country as they competed for our university and for our city," said Rick Dickson, Tulane's director of athletics. "The board's decision makes Green Wave athletics whole again and ensures our student-athletes can continue to represent this university in their customary first-class manner."

The reduction in programs was part of the university's Renewal Plan, a university-wide plan to strengthen and focus Tulane's academic mission and ensure financial stability following the devastation caused by Katrina.

As part of the Renewal Plan process, an ad hoc committee of the board was established to develop a plan to bring Tulane's athletics programs back into compliance with the NCAA's Division I-A membership criteria by the end of fiscal year 2011, consistent with a five-year exemption from the NCAA's requirement of fielding 16 sports.

"In 2005 when we implemented the Renewal Plan, we said we would bring back our sports on a time line based on the recovery of New Orleans and the university and within the time frame permitted by the NCAA," said Dickson.

The board's decision comes one year into the waiver period, allowing plenty of time to implement in an orderly fashion the addition of the eight sports, said Dickson. "The group examined this from every angle and we have an excellent plan to ensure that we will be ready to start scheduling, recruiting and competing according to the board's time line as well as the five-year exemption."

Since Katrina, Green Wave athletes have been competing in eight sports at the Division I-A level -- football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, and women's indoor and outdoor track and cross country.

With all 16 teams in competition by early 2011, Tulane will be in full compliance with the NCAA's Division I-A membership criteria.

For more information, please contact Daniella Irle (504) 862-8236 or email dirle@tulane.edu.